Protests target decision-makers

Protesters and supporters of fracking staged hi-profile events to mark the start of the planning inquiryl.

Anti-fracking groups headed for London to take the message to the politicians who will eventually have the final say on the report. They are angry Conservative minister Greg Clark has said he will make the final decision since party leader David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne have repeatedly signalled the Government’s support for shale gas.

He wrote to Lancashire County council to say that the development of a shale gas industry was “development of major importance having more than local significance and proposals which raise important or novel issues of development control, and/or legal difficulties.”

Tina Rothery from the Lancashire Nanas protest group said : “We are in London to pass on the message: ‘Don’t frack Lancashire and don’t frack democracy.

“When this appeal is done, we will have reached the limits of our options to be heard. We will have interrogated the democratic process and the outcome will matter to every community in the UK.

“We know Westminster aims to steal the decision away from Lancashire, neutering our councillors and exposing our ‘democracy’ as a sham. It seems Osborne and Cameron are willing to fracture our democracy in order to frack Lancashire.”